One Month of PM Burnham: What have we learnt so far & what should we expect going forward?

Almost one month into Andy Burnham's time as Prime Minister, we keep coming back to the same thought. Almost everything he has set out in his first speeches is what we are already trying to build in Lancaster. The question that matters to us, and the one we want to focus on here, is whether it can be delivered.

In one sentence, we can probably sum up Mr Burnham's first month in the top job as follows:

"Economic growth, public service reform and social renewal are best achieved by giving people and places more power, more skills and more control over the services that affect their lives."

His early speeches have centred on a few clear themes that follow from that: a “circuit-breaker for Britain” and a new political model, a more active use of public procurement to back British jobs and skills; more support for young people into work; power pushed out to every region and community; and health, with social care in particular, treated as a central mission of government. Taken together, it reads as a shift of power, money and control closer to the places that services are meant to serve, and we agree with almost all of it.

Here is how the four parts look from our vantage point.

Adult Social Care

"Fixing social care is essential to fixing the country's wider health and economic challenges."

The direction of travel is a larger role for local authorities, more care delivered closer to home, and greater emphasis on prevention rather than crisis.

That is the thinking behind the Neighbourhood Health Centre we are promoting at Brewery Lane, which aligns directly with government policy. We designed it because joined-up, place-based care is what the area needs, and it is good to see national policy now pointing the same way.

Allied to this is a fundamental need for place-based public service reform: closer integration between councils, NHS bodies and voluntary organisations, services delivered at neighbourhood level, a focus on health promotion and prevention, and shared accountability for outcomes rather than separate institutional targets. This is what creates a real change in what communities experience on the ground, and it is what we have been pushing for in Lancaster.

Education, Apprenticeships & Skills

"Education should prepare people for life, work and prosperity, not simply funnel them towards university. Every pound of public investment should create pathways into skilled employment."

We have believed that for a long time. The focus successive governments have placed on a university-first approach has not fully served younger generations, and the last ten years of political and economic instability and new technology have fundamentally changed the employment landscape underneath them. It is not only the young who have suffered. A job for life has become a rarity, and the norm now is several jobs, and often several careers, across a working life. Our ability to train and re-train, access different career paths and secure, stable employment requires a coordinated approach and a system that promotes the modern world we inhabit. Technological advances are going to exponentially increase and continually change the way we work and live, so our educational infrastructure needs to be flexible and dynamic enough to support this.

This is why we’re looking to deliver an education hub in the heart of Lancaster city centre, in an accessible and sustainable location, surrounded by culture, open space, local businesses, affordable housing and incubator space supporting start-ups and SMEs. To turn this vision into reality, we are actively encouraging and challenging the education system, as well as progressing discussions with business and industry around apprenticeships and work experience.

Devolution

"Britain will not be renewed through Whitehall alone; communities must have the power to shape their own future."

Devolution is the thread that ties the rest together. For us, this comes down to five things: more funding allocated locally rather than centrally; local areas retaining more of the growth they generate; funding consolidated into larger and more regular devolved settlements rather than through a 'bidding' process; real freedom for mayors and councils over how they spend; and accountability measured against locally agreed outcomes rather than Whitehall rules. The above will give local authorities more confidence around budgets, service provision and workforce, enabling them to compete in the employment market and deliver on their stated local strategies.

It is clear in Lancashire that the lack of devolution has fundamentally held the region back. You only have to look at what is underway in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region to see how far behind Lancashire has been left, and how important it is that a strategy is put in place to reverse this position as a matter of urgency. Those steps are hopefully now underway with Local Government Reorganisation, but it is essential that this does not hold back current progress.

Brewery Lane is live and will come forward over the next few years, and with public sector support and proactive coordination with the private sector, it can serve as an example of what is possible irrespective of devolution. The Eden Project North points the same way for Morecambe. But with devolution comes the ability to drive regeneration forward at a much quicker pace, which can only benefit long-suffering local communities.

Housing, Regeneration and "Good Growth"

"Britain needs to build more council homes, tackle homelessness and ensure 'good growth' reaches every community."

This brings us to housing and growth, the part of all this we feel most strongly about. We share his aim, but it succeeds or fails on two words: effective delivery. And delivery, in turn, comes down to procurement.

Despite the Procurement Act 2023, procurement is still not working. Too many regeneration schemes are effectively land-banked by the small number of developers able to show the right paper credentials, much of which means very little when it comes to building anything. When a handful of developers are procured to deliver scheme after scheme across the country, you get two predictable problems. You get conflicts of interest, particularly around access to public funding, and you get a resource problem. The result is the one we all recognise: timescales slip, delivery costs rise, the demands on the public purse are further exacerbated and targets simply do not get met!

We welcome the direction. Moving power and money closer to the places that need them is the right call, and Burnham is better placed than most to make it, based on his long-held beliefs and principles, his years at the coalface in Greater Manchester and his work alongside other Metro Mayors. It could start us on the journey of changing an outdated system of government.

But direction is not delivery. If the new settlement still runs regeneration through the same few national developers and the same slow procurement routes, the places that need change most will carry on waiting for it. To be truly effective, every region of the UK needs an equal opportunity to transform its local economy, support the growth of local business and give local people the tools to drive their own future.

For our part, we will continue to share how these government changes affect the development of Brewery Lane as it comes forward, the wins as well as the challenges. Much of what we run into there will be familiar to many other places trying to deliver the same kind of change.